• The Program

  SatFinderAndroid is an Android-based geostationary satellite location and dish alignment tool. It has a database of all current geostationary satellites worldwide, and it provides detailed pointing instructions for all of them. It also has a list of popular satellite receiving dish models with pointing data for them as well. And more, it has a way to superimpose the locations of your selected satellites directly on a live camera picture of the sky at your location. The picture at the top of this page shows a typical display of three user-selected satellites, positioned on the sky in their correct locations. SatFinderAndroid also has a pointing method that looks like this, meant for Android devices without cameras, and that uses your Android device as an azimuth and elevation signting tool.

  SatFinderAndroid takes what was once a rather complex technical job requiring a knowledge of ZIP codes, city and state names, or geographic positions, plus a hand bearing compass and an inclinometer, and collapses it into an easy-to-use Android application that locates itself, finds your satellite, and then tells you where it is by pointing to it.

  SatFinderAndroid requires Android version 3.2, API 13, or newer.

• The Programmer

  Hello — I'm Paul Lutus, author of SatFinderAndroid. I've been writing software for about 35 years and have written some very well-known titles (Apple Writer, Arachnophilia). SatFinderAndroid is the third of my Android applications — I wrote it because (as before) there were no Android programs available that filled its purpose. Because a typical Android device is able to locate itself using GPS or network information, and sense magnetic fields as well as local level, it's an obvious, convenient way to locate and install satellite dishes.

  I hope you like SatFinderAndroid. And stay tuned — I'll be writing more Android programs in the future.

• The easiest way to get SatFinderAndroid from a camera-equipped Android device is to take a picture of the QR code at the top of this page and download the result.
• The next-easiest way is to click the download link that appears below the QR code. This only works if you are browsing with your Android device.
• Another way is to use another computer to download the SatFinderAndroid file, then download it onto your Android device.
• Programmers: SatFinderAndroid is open-source and licensed under the GPL. Click here to download the source archive.

As a programmer and as someone who aligns satellite dishes regularly, I find that SatFinderAndroid greatly simplifies a number of formerly inconvenient tasks. Traditionally, one consulted a table of satellite positions, got hold of a hand compass for azimuth and an inclinometer for elevation of a receiving dish, and finally went out to install or align a dish. But because the Android platform can find its own position as well as sense magnetic bearings and elevations, SatFinderAndroid does all these things in a single application. I think this is a perfect example where mobile computing makes a formerly complex technical task easy.

I have some experience writing satellite locator programs. SatFinderAndroid is just the latest (and by far the easest to use) in a series of programs I've written to manage satellite dish installation and alignment. The first was Satellite Finder, a Java desktop application which required the user to specify his geographic location using a ZIP code database, or by specifying a U.S. city and state, or by direct entry of geographic position. Not much fun. The next was an online version of Satellite Finder that worked in much the same way, but didn't require users to download anything.

All the prior versions had the drawback that they required users to either have a U.S. ZIP code, or select a U.S. city and state, or manually type in their location's latitude and longitude, assuming they knew it. Those location preliminaries constituted the majority of the code — actually computing satellite positions was comparatively easy. These requirements also prevented non-U.S. users from having an easy way to use the program, all of whom had to manually type in a geographical position.

For some use instructions, here is a link to the help page that comes istalled with SatFinderAndroid.

SatFinderAndroid is free, it doesn't show ads, it's not crippleware or shareware, and I don't want your money. I just thought I would make that clear up front.

Years ago, in connection with my software development activities, I came up with an idea I called CareWare. But as the years went by I became somewhat disenchanted with the original idea and I now find it somewhat overheated (even though it's my idea).

So lately, moved as I am by conflicting forces — on one hand wanting to change the world, but on the other not wanting to even appear disrespectful of other people's choices — I've decided to just say pay it forward if you want. But there's no obligation to do that.

• SatFinderAndroid is Copyright 2012, P. lutus and is released under the GPL.

• Here is a source archive for SatFinderAndroid, organized as an Eclipse Android project.

• Version History (reverse chronological order)

  • 09-10-2012 Version 1.3.2. Fixed a problem with southern hemisphere operation.
  • 03-03-2012 Version 1.3.1. Fixed a geometric bug in the new camera sighting feature.
  • 03-03-2012 Version 1.3. Added a camera-based sighting method that allows the user to see the sky with satellite positions superimposed in their correct locations.
  • 02-26-2012 Version 1.2. Fixed two small bugs that produced unexpected results for southern hemisphere locations.
  • 02-23-2012 Version 1.1. Edited documentation.
  • 02-17-2012 Version 1.0. Initial public release.